The Universe is Burning
by Lord Jeran
Summary: A giant science-fiction crossover involving Star Wars, Warhammer 40k, Halo, Mass Effect, Star Trek, Stargate Sg-1, Starship troopers, My own creation- the Jeran Chronicles, and anything I decide to include, nominations for inclusion are welcome please R
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

"John, wake up

Authors note

**- ****Several years ago I remember reading a truly great story on this website. It was called A Far Flung Hope****and it**** was a**** truly epic crossover with dozens of members. It was a great story and it had a great author, Bombsquad. It only had two faults, the first was that it got too big, just way too damned big and was hard to follow. The second was that even though the author knew what he needed to know about****most of his participating universes, he didn't know much about some and that was a slight downfall. I will try to rectify that in my epic crossover story by only including stuff I know about-no offense meant to Bombsquad. Bombsquad, if you're reading this (which I doubt) I used the Covenant as the bad guys and the Idea of Conscripts (heavily modified mind you) in homage to your great story; not to rip it off.**

Disclaimer _I don't own anything I don't own. All ideas are my own except for the ones mentioned above. Everything concerning the Jeran Empire is completely mine; look for the Jeran Chronicles (my original story concerning The Empire and its Emperor) on towards Christmas time. It's not needed to understand this story but it is recommended._

On with the story!

Meetings

"Chief, wake up!" the sharp sound of Cortana's command called Master Chief Petty Officer John, Spartan 117, into instant alertness. He opened his eyes and saw her excited image mime banging on the cryo chamber. The door slowly opened and he ignored the wave of nausea as the zero gravity combined with the taste of the sleeper chemicals in his mouth. He grabbed the assault rifle from its rack and slapped a magazine into it. He floated down the hallway to the armory and grabbed a shotgun and a couple of frag grenades, when he got back he could see Cortana positively seething with barely controlled frustration.

Now that he was ready he looked to her and asked, "What's wrong?"

Cortana said nothing, but she pointed to the off-line sensor panel. As soon as he looked at it, it flicked on. John looked at her and said "Exactly how long have I been out?"

This time she answered, "Only three weeks; now look at the panel John!"

Noticing the hint of exasperation in her voice, the Master Chief complied, what he saw perplexed him, "There's an incoming ship but it doesn't match any in the database; Human or Covenant, and it's small, no more than sixty meters long." He looked at Cortana and said "It's headed right for us isn't it."

Cortana smiled at him and said, "It was headed for us a couple of hours ago, now its here." At that moment a loud thump sounded from down the hall. Master Chief held out his hand and Cortana took it, transferring her program into his suit. As he launched himself down the hall she remarked "It's a bit more cramped in here than I remembered."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Commander John Shepard stood in the airlock between a Turian and a Krogan. Usually not the best place to be as the two species had an almost universal hatred for each other but these two were different. Garrus Vakarian (the Turian) and Urdnot Wrex (the Krogan) had the sort of friendship, forged under fire, that would endure anything; but you wouldn't know it from the bickering.

"I'm telling you," Wrex said, "That's the front half of a Turian transport from the war against my people"

"Wrex, I'm a Turian, I think I know what our ships look like and that's not one of them." Garrus replied.

"You two should get a room," Commander Shepard said with a grin. They both snorted and promptly began arguing again. In truth the Commander also wondered what this wreck was. He also wondered why the first (and only) human spectre, himself, was being dispatched to investigate a derelict ship. It was almost like the council was rewarding his saving their asses in Sovereign's attack on the Citadel by giving him a bullshit assignment. Again the little voice in the back of his head nagged at him to think that the council wouldn't give him a useless mission when the rest of the reapers were out there, but if they had a good reason to send him out here he didn't see it.

It almost looked like there was English lettering on the side of the wreck but it was obscured by some carbon scoring and that was impossible anyway. This ship could not be human, he had looked through all of the files and it matched no human starship ever designed. It was all dull grey metal and angles; more like a Turian design but without the arrowhead shape. It was also obviously a warship and an unlucky one at that, there were spots of partially melted hull all over it and what he took to be the front half was totally gone. The bisection didn't seem to come from weapon-fire though; it was too neat, too _clean_ to come any weapon he'd heard of.

There was a slight thump and he knew they'd docked with the wreck

"Commander," Joker's voice came over the com-system, "Go ahead, we're latched."

Commander Shepard took a deep breath and stepped through the opening airlock.

P.S. _sorry for the large author's note and the small opening chapter I'll update as soon as I write more chapters._


	2. Chapter 2: A pleasant meeting

Galaxy 2304- Undisclosed location

Control Galaxy (00) date September 13, 2008,

Alignment complete

Commander Shepard looked warily down the corridor. It looked deserted; he didn't expect anything different considering that, due to the ship being cut in half, it was in total vacuum. Still, always being aware of his surroundings had proven to be a blessing during the Skyllian blitz on Elysium.

The blitz was an attack on the colony Elysium by a massive allied force of slavers, crime syndicates, and Batarian warlords. It looked hopeless, but he didn't give up; he rallied the desperate civilians and defended the colony and when the Batarians broke through the defenses he closed the breach single-handedly. He was just doing his duty but it had made him a hero instantly. After the battle, the corpses of the dead lay knee-deep; it still gave him nightmares, horrible ones.

These nightmares inevitably led to ones he'd had for a long time; ones about his colony-world, Mindoir, that was attacked when he was sixteen by some of the same slavers he later killed in the Blitz; justice he supposed. The slavers had taken everything from him: his family, his friends, even his dog had fallen to the Batarians when they had resisted. A passing Alliance vessel had rescued him from the wreckage but he could never forget the image of his house bursting into flame along with his family or of his brave dog, Mace, viciously attacking the Batarian that was trying to kill him. It had given him just enough time to bash the bastard over the head with a piece of debris. It was too late for his loyal pet though. He had taken a bullet meant for Shepard and it slowly filled the dog's lungs with blood. The second creature he had killed that day was his own dog; Shepard had ended his agony, the whole time Mason was whimpering for him to make it better.

It still haunted him. He tried to forget but it was no use, he tried to be a good man, he always tried to do the right thing; sometimes at his own expense. No matter what he tried to do though, _he hated Batarians._ He knew it was wrong to hate an entire species because of the actions of a few criminals: but that didn't change the fact that he hated them, he didn't trust them and he didn't trust himself around them.

The odd thing was, in all of his nightmares, there was a man, (or a machine, he couldn't tell) that he had never seen, that was always there, sitting off to the side. This man-thing was a giant in green armor whose gaze was always fixed upon him. In the darkest dreams, the ones where Shepard got his wish and stood to die in the stead of his family; the giant would always interfere and kill the Batarians with lightning speed and terrible strength and liquid grace. When Shepard asked him why he stopped his blessed release the giant would look upon him and say one word. "_Soon."_

That was a long time ago; he had other things to ponder right now; like the fact that contrary to everything he knew this ship was, no doubt about it, human in origin. There was English lettering all along the sides, mostly exclaiming what deck they were on how far they were from the: engines, bridge, armory, etc. That also solved another problem by showing that this was, very clearly, a military vessel, there were guns everywhere. Every ten meters along the hallway there seemed to be a mini-armory; with old-fashion ballistic weaponry and what appeared to be a rocket launcher. Even with all these weapons close at hand it didn't seem to be enough; here and there splashed along the walls was what appeared to be human blood. To complicate matters the artificial gravity, which this ship did have if he could tell from the orientation of everything, was off. Zero-gravity combat was dangerous, very dangerous.

Shepard's thoughts were interrupted with a shout from Garrus, "Commander, we have something on the motion-sensor. I'd say it's just around the next corner."

"Alright, we'll check it out, Garrus you take point, Wrex, you're with me," Shepard replied a bit wearily. In fact, ever since Alenco died he always questioned the orders he gave, he never wanted to order somebody to death; he'd do it again if he had to, but every time he sent someone to their deaths a little bit of the commander died as well.

Garrus did as he was told and floated around the corner first, there was a dull thud sound and he flew back, screaming around the corner, bounced off of the wall, and with a grunt, ran smack into Commander Shepard and Wrex; knocking them both flying. Just then the gravity kicked on and they all fell painfully to the ground. Shepard pushed himself off the floor and looked up. What he saw shocked him into immobility. The huge, green figure out of his nightmares stood before him and stared at him through his reflective faceplate and said in a voice like thunder, "Who are you?"

--

Master Chief held on to one of the structural braces that dotted the ship's interior. It was a good spot, above a blind corner; he would now have a literal drop on them when they came. He had seen the three intruders on his motion sensor and had gotten into position as fast as he could, probably tripping any sensor equipment they had. He was now ready for anything they might through at him.

Suddenly, from around the corner came an alien of a type he had never seen before. Thus he checked his first instinct, which was to blow it away with the eight-gauge combat shotgun firing solid slugs. He put the safety on and studied it.

The creature was wearing an environmental suit so that made it hard for him to make out all the details, but he could see the barrel-chest that narrowed towards the waist and then spread out again at the legs. The limbs, it had four like Humans, Elites, Grunts, and most other sentient species, were thin and delicate-looking, the legs had backwards pointing spurs and the helmet was streamlined, with a back-tip that stretched a little ways past the end of it. John's first impression was that of a terran bird. The creature may have looked delicate, but the gun in its hands was definitely not. He couldn't kill it if it could be a potential ally against the covenant remnant or the flood but he also couldn't let it have the upper-hand at any point in the proceedings. So, he compromised.

John pushed off the ceiling with his legs while still holding on to the support. He swung down and dealt the alien a double-booted kick to the center of it's chest. For a brief moment he could see the creature try to bring it's gun to bear. Nothing was faster than a Spartan-II though. All it succeeded in doing was to put it's weapon between it and the green blur. John's boots snapped the creature's gun in half, put a two-centimeter dent in it's chest plate, and sent it flying down the corridor hollering the whole way. That course of action also had the unexpected side-effect of knocking down the creature's companions. He curled around and launched himself down the after them while Cortana said "Well done; strike,"

John, who had never bowled in his life and had only the faintest idea what bowling was, didn't get the reference. Instead, he told her to turn the gravity back on and she complied. John landed on the deck with a graceful roll and looked at the intruders that were now beginning to get up. One of them was a tall, thickset, probably reptilian (again he couldn't tell because of the helmets) alien he wouldn't enjoy fighting without his armor. He was about to disarm them all when he noticed that the third being was a human male and though he could only see it's eyes, John could see he was staring at him with something akin to mixed fear and hope.

John, totally confused asked him "Who are you?" While the strange man seemed to be struggling for an answer he asked Cortana what she thought of the situation.

Cortana said, "Chief, for once I have about as much of a clue as you do. Whatever the case, we had best be careful. Look, he's saying something."

John looked at the kneeling man and expected to hear foreign gibberish. Instead, the man stood up, held out his hand and said in perfect English, "I'm Lieutenant-Commander Shepard, commanding officer of the SSV Normandy and you are? Um…"

Due to years of conditioning concerning the proper way to greet a superior officer, at the mention of Lieutenant Commander Master Chief's gauntleted hand shot up in an unconscious salute before he could stop himself. Commander Shepard's eyes crinkled in a smile and John mentally berated himself. Saluting another nation's officer, Chief Mendez would be having stomach trouble wherever he was.

Cortana, of course, saw what happened and remarked sarcastically, "Smooth Chief. It would seem that he shares your first name. I wonder why he can speak English though."

John took his hand and said to the Commander, "I'm Master Chief Petty Officer John, Spartan-117,"

The Commander said, "I assume that means you're human," when the Master Chief nodded he went on, "Under my authority as a representative of the Human Systems Alliance and the Citadel Council. I formally invite you aboard my vessel as my personal guest until we can decide what in god's name is going on here.

"Well Cortana," the Spartan asked, "What do you think,"

"I think," She answered back, "That we don't have much choice, turning on the gravity sucked all the remaining power from the cryo tubes. We can go with them, or you can stay here and run out of air."

John turned to Commander Shepard and replied, "I'd be honored to," as an afterthought he added, "Sir."


End file.
